Hurricane Katrina USA 2005

Hurricane Katrina began as a very-low pressure weather system, which strengthened to become a tropical storm and eventually a hurricane as it moved west and neared Florida coast on the evening of 25 August 2005

Impacts...

The levees and flood walls that protected New Orleans were breached in 53 different places, allowing water to flood the city up to 3m deep

Flooding was made worse by the heavy rain (250 mm during the storm) It is estimated that over 80% of the city under the water

Deaths totalled 1836 - many drowned in the floodwaters and lay in the streets or floated in the water for days before their bodies were recovered

Over 10,000 people were made homeless. Most of these were from the poor inner city areas of St Bernard's Parish and Lower Ninth Ward

Over 3 million people were left without electricity

There was shortage of food and no access to a clean water supply for survivors, which raised problems of contaminated water and health risks